Seamless garment



W. WADE SEAMLESS GARMENT May 8, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 30,1955 0 l thl I1 May 8, 1962 Filed NOV. 30, 1955 W. WADE SEAMLESS GARMENT2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3,032,774 Patented May 8, 1962 3,032,774 SEAMLESSGARMENT Worth Wade, Rosemont, Pa., assignor to American ViscoseCorporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Nov. 30,1955, Ser. No. 550,040 2 Claims. (Cl. 2-243) This invention relates todisposable garments and to a process and apparatus for producing suchgarments. The term disposable garment is used herein and in the claimsto designate any garment or article of wearing apparel having aprincipal tubular body or torso portion and an integral tubularappendage portion and intended to be worn one or more times until it hasbecome soiled and then disposed of without laundering.

In recent years, there has been a general trend in the wearing apparelindustry to such articles which may be worn after laundering withoutrequiring ironing. There has also been a general trend by the publictoward the use of disposable items such as drinking cups, dentist bibs,baby diapers, paper napkins and the like. In all of these trends, theobject is to relieve the housewife of the tedious labors of ironing andlaundering and to avoid the cost and troubles involved in checking theitems which are sent to and received from the commercial laundry. Inconsidering the cost of a garment such as a surgeons operating jacket,the initial price is generally a small part of the total cost when thecost of laundering is added to the retail price. When the initial priceplus the cost of laundering such items is divided by the number of timesthe garment can be worn before it is discarded, it will be found thatdisposable garments are economically feasible for many purposes. Priorto the present invention, there have been no garments which were soconstructed and low enough in cost to permit the user to wear thegarment once or several times until soiled and then dispose of thegarment without laundering.

The textile and garment industries cannot produce a garment which may beeconomically discarded after soiling because the conventional methods ofmanufacturing the textile garments are too costly and complicated. Forexample, to produce an ordinary T-shirt requires the followingconventional steps: picking or carding of the fibers, drafting, yarnspinning, yarn slashing, weaving, finishing the fabric, cutting thefabric, sewing, washing and ironing or pressing. To further complicatethis method, all of these steps are seldom carried out in a singleestablishment so that operations in different localities are required toproduce the final product. In general, more than twenty machines arerequired to convert conventional textile fibers into a T-Shirt. Thecostly and complicated steps of these conventional methods areeliminated by the present invention.

The general object of the present invention is to provide disposablegarments fabricated in such manner that they can be economically wornonce or several times until soiled and then discarded withoutlaundering.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a method for theproduction of disposable garments having a principal tubular torsoportion and an integral tubular appendage portion in a simple andeconomical manner so that the garments may be disposed of withoutlaundering after they have become soiled.

A further purpose of the present invention is to provide apparatus forthe production of disposable garments from fibers which do not requirethe elaborate and complicated equipment required in the conventionalgarment trade.

The present invention provides for the first time a seamless garmenthaving a principal tubular body por-' tion and an integral tubularappendage portion, the garment being formed of a layer of fibers inrandom distribution and with at least some of the fibers in the layerbeing bonded together.

The process for producing such disposable garments comprises, ingeneral, dispersing fibers in an air stream, collecting the fibers in arandom distribution and in an intermingled relationship on a form havingsubstantially the shape of the desired garment and thereafter bonding atleast some of the fibers to each other to produce a seamless non-wovengarment. The apparatus, in general, comprises a chamber, means todisperse fibers in an air stream in the chamber, a. collector havingsubstantially the shape of the desired garment and means to bond thefibers together in the deposited or collected fiber layer. The collectoris porous and means are provided to apply suction to one surface of thecollector whereby the fibers are deposited on the other surface. In thepreferred embodiment of the apparatus, the collector is so formed thatthe fibers are collected on the inside of a hollow porous collector andthe shaped fiber layer is separated from and removed from the collectorby stripping and withdrawing the article from the inside of thecollector.

For a more complete understanding of the nature and objects of theinvention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of one form ofapparatus for making disposable garments in accordance with thisinvention;

FIGURE 2 is an elevational view of one form of garment produced by theuse of apparatus as illustrated in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of an invertedembodiment of apparatus for forming garments in accordance with thisinvention;

FIGURE 4 is an elevational view of a finished garment formed with theapparatus illustrated in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the disposablegarments of this invention having textile fabric reinforcements;

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view at an enlarged scale of a portion of thegarment shown in FIGURE 5 illustrating one method of applying textilefabric inserts to the garment;

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view showing a further embodiment ofdisposable garments having reinforcements and having drawstring inserts;and

FIGURE 8 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the disposablegarments wherein some of the integral appendage portions or sections areprovided with closed ends.

In forming the garments in accordance with the present invention, anydesired fibers may be utilized. The particular fibers selected willdepend'largely upon the specific garment'and its intended uses and therelative cost of the fiber. For example, asbestos fibers may be utilizedin providing aprons, jackets, trousers and the like where the garmentswould be used by firefighters, metal workers and the like. For othertypes of wearing apparel, other natural fibers and synthetic fibersalone or in admixture may be employed.

In order to reduce costs, the garment is preferably formed of a mixtureof short fibers and long fibers. The

relative proportions of the'short fibers and long fibers may be varied,or the garment may be formed by first depositing a thin layer of longfibers, then a layer of short fibers followed by another layer of longfibers. Alternatively, one type of fiber may first be collected ordeposited to form a thin mat, then the other type of fiber introducedalong with the first type and finally introducing only the second typeof fiber so that the finished product has external surfaces formed ofthe individual types of fibers. V I a The term long fibers as usedherein and in the claims designates textile making fibers capable ofbeing carded and the term short fibers designates non-textile makingfibers having a length less than about one-half inch and includingpaper-making fibers. For example, the short fibers can be wood fibers,before or after beating, kapok, asbestos, glass fibers and organicplastic fibers of less than one-half inch in length, wool waste and oilsand the like, all of which are normally not useful for makingconventional woven or knitted garments.

The fibers in the product are preferably bonded together at least wherethe fibers cross each other The garment fibers may be adhesive bonded orfiber bonded. This bonding may be effected by spraying a suitableadhesive onto the web after the garment has been formed or an adhesivemay be sprayed into the stream of airborne fibers as they pass towardthe collector. Preferably, however, the garment is made of a mixture ofnonbinder fibers and binder fibers, that is, at least some of the fibersare potentially adhesive. The binder fibers may be adhesively tacky whenthey are deposited on the collector or they may be rendered tacky oradhesive by a suitable treatment with a solvent or heat with or withoutpressure. Such fibers are termed potentially adhesive.

The binder or potentially adhesive fibers may be formed of anyfiber-forming substance which may be rendered adhesive, that is, sticky,cementitious, agglutinous or tacky by heating to temperatures elevatedwith respect to normal or atmospheric temperatures or by treatment witha solvent or both. Fiber-forming substances satisfactory for thepurposes of this invention are substances such as polymers which may beformed into fibers from a flowable condition, that is, from a plastic ormolten state or from a solution such as cellulose derivatives, resins orelastomers. The cellulose derivatives include organic solvent solublecellulose esters such as cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate-butyrateand the like and organic solvent soluble cellulose ethers and the like.Resins which are satisfactory for forming the potentially adhesivefibers include inexpensive natural resins such as shellac, dammar andthe like, and synthetic resins formed by the polymerization of variousorganic compounds such as coumarone, indene, vinyl, styrene, sterolaldehyde, furfural, ketones, urea, thiourea, phenol-aldehyde resins,either alone or modified with oils, urea-aldehyde resins, polyhydricalcohol-polybasic acid resins (Dacron), drying oil-modified alkydresins, resins formed from acrylic acid, its homologues and theirderivatives, resins formed from dicarboxylic acids and 'diamines (nylontype); natural and synthetic rubber or rubber substitutes such aspolymerized butadiene, olefine polysulfides, isobutylene polymers,chloroprene polymers; copolymers such as copolymers of a vinyl halideand vinyl acetate, or a vinyl halide and an acrylic acid derivative, forexample, a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate (Vinyon), acopolymer of vinyl chloride and acrylonitrile (Dynel), copolymers ofacrylonitrile containing a predominant proportion of acrylonitrile(Aerilan, Orlon) and mix tures of the various substances.

The non-binder or non-adhesive fibers maybe natural fibers and fibersformed of synthetic resins which are not rendered adhesive when thepotentially adhesive fibers are rendered adhesive and include asbestos,wood fibers, cotton, flax, jute, sisal, kapok, wool, hair, silk and thelike, cellulosic fibers such as formed from cellulose hydrate, celluloseesters, cellulose ester-ethers,

mixed cellulose ethers, cellulose hydroxyalkyl ethers, cellulosecarboxyal-kyl ethers, cellulose ether-xanthates, cellulose xantho-fattyacids, cellulose thiourethanes, fibers formed from alginic acid,gelatine, casein, and the like, and also fibers and filaments made byslitting, cutting or shredding non-fibrous films such as wastecellophane.

The character and quality of the non-woven-fabric forming the garmentmay be varied by varying the nature of the short fibers and the longfibers. By utilizing short fibers which are non-binder or non-adhesivein admixture with long fibers which are potentially adhesive, anon-boardy soft pliable garment results. By utilizing short fibers of ahinder or adhesive nature and long fibers which are non-adhesive, thefabric is relatively stiff although it is still flexible. By confiningthe short fibers to an inner layer between two outside layers of longfibers of a binder material, a relatively stiff fabric results which maybe of extremely low cost. By the use of large proportions of relativelylong fibers of a hinder or adhesive material on the outer surface of thefabric, the wear-resistance of the fabric may be increased.

In the preferred form of low cost, disposable garment, a mixture offibers is employed consisting of a major proportion of short fibers,e.g., from about 50% to about by weight, and a minor proportion of longfibers, e.g., from about 5% to about 50%, the long fibers preferablybeing potentially adhesive and serving to bond the fibers in thegarment.

The apparatus shown in FIGURE 1 includes a chamber 10 wherein the fibers11 are dispersed in an air stream moving axially of the chamber. The airstream may be provided by a suitable blower 12 and the fibers may bedispersed in the air stream by introducing them into the blower orthrough a separate conduit. If desired, some of the fibers may be formedwithin the chamber. For example, a suitable fiber-forming device may beof the form shown in the copending application of Paul C. Watson, SerialNo. 400,304, filed December 24, 1953, now abandoned. A fiber-formingliquid is extruded through a tube 13 positioned coaxially within a highvelocity gas stream supplied through nozzle 14 by means of a suitableblower 15. The liquid is dispersed into a multiplicity of fine tackyfibers 11b which float up and mix with the blown fibers 11.

At the opposite end of chamber 10, there is positioned a removable mold16. The mold comprisesan outer impermeable shell 17 and an internalforaminous or porous collector shell 18 spaced from the outer shell 17and having substantially the desired configuration of the garment. Forexample, the collector for a T-shirt would have a principal tubular bodyor torso receiving portion T and integral tubular appendages or armreceiving portions A. At what corresponds to the neck portion of theT-shirt, the collector may have an impervious portion 19 and likewise atthe ends 20 of the arm portions the collector may be formed of animpermeable material. The collector is positioned in spaced relationshipwithin the impervious outer casing 17, the casing being preferableprovided with a plurality of ducts 21 through which the gas may beexhausted from the chamber. In order to provide a ready assembly anddisassembly of the mold from the chamber, both the mold and the chambermay be provided with mating flanges 22 and 23. Since the sprayed fibers11b are tacky at the time when the fiber mixture is deposited on themold, they bond the other fibers and enable the garment to be removedfrom the mold in one piece.

Where the fibers are all preformed fibers such as rayon staple fibersintroduced into the chamber as through blower 12, they are carried fromthe point of introduction to the collector by the air stream and becomeintermingled and are deposited on the collector in a randomdistribution. After a layer of the desired thickness is collected on thecollector surface, a suitable binding or adhesive material may beintroduced as through atomizers 2.4 and 25, the air flow through thechamber and through the collector surface being maintained during theatomizing period. Where the fibers which are collected includethermoplastic fibers either introduced as preformed thermoplastic fibersor formed by the spraying unit, the

collected fibrous layer may be" bonded into a unitary structure byintroducing hot gas or by introducing steam through atomizers 24 and 25to raise the temperature sufiiciently high to cause the thermoplasticfibers to become tacky and then introducing cooler air to set thethermoplastic fibers. Where the fibers may be rendered adhesive by asolvent, vapors of the solvent may be sup- 1 plied through the atomizers24 and 25 followed by flushing with air to deactivate and reset theadhesive fibers. Thereafter, the mold 16 may be separated from thechamber and the fibrous article or garment is stripped from thecollector 18 internally of the mold.

The garment as produced by this apparatus and utilizing any of thebonding methods is shown in FIGURE 2. The garment comprises a mainhollow or tubular body or torso receiving portion 26 and integral hollowor tubular appendage or sleeve or arm receiving sections 27. The torsoreceiving portion has at one end a neck portion adapted to encompass thewearers neck-and the arm receiving sections or sleeves extend in agenerally downward direction along the torso receiving portion from aposition adjacent the neck portion, the axes of the arm receivingsections forming acute angles with the axis of the torso receivingportion. Obviously, the length of the torso portion and the lengths ofthe sleeve portions may be of any desired size. A cord 28 may be laidaround the neck portion or may be secured adjacent the neck portion andthe neck portion turned down upon itself to enclose the cord and therebyprovide a drawstring. The cord may be adhered by adhesive or bythermally bonding the layers of garment. The back portion may be slitand tie cords 29 secured along the slit back to provide ajacket or gownfor use by surgeons, nurses, waitresses, etc.

In that embodiment of the apparatus as shown in FIG- URE 3, there isprovided a chamber 30 and a conduit 31 through which gas may be passedwhich gas may carry preformed fibers. The fiber-forming device 32includes a hollow disc secured to a tubular. shaft 33 and having aseries of spaced orifices in its outer peripheral surface and means (notshown) for rotating the disc at a high velocity. A fiber-forming plasticin liquid state is supplied to the hollow disc through the tubular shaftandv the plastic is thrown through the orifices by centrifugal force toform fibers which are carried downwardly in the tower by a gas stream.At the opposite end of the tower, there is mounted a mold 34 whichcomprises an outer impervious shell 35 provided with gas exhaustconduits 36 and an internal foraminous or porous collector shell 37. Thecollector shell, in this instance, may be in the form of a turtle-necksweater and may be shaped as illustrated. After the fiber layerdeposited on the collector shell is of a desired thickness, the fibersin the layer are bonded together as described hereinabove. The mold isthereafter separated from the chamber and the garment is stripped fromthe collector surface. This apparatus may be inverted if desired.

The lower marginal portion of the torso section 38 may be foldedupwardly and a cord placed within the fold before the edge is bonded tothe torso portion to form a drawstring 39. The neck portion may, ifdesired, be slit and a portion folded downwardly as shown to form acollar 40. The marginal portions 41 of the sleeves 42 may be turnedupwardly to reinforce the open ends of the sleeve. Because of thenon-woven structure, the fibrous sheet has limited stretchability. It isnecessary to form the seamless body or torso portion of sufficient widthto allow the garment to he slipped over the shoulders of the wearer. Thedrawstring at the lower portion or, if desired, a drawstring attachedhigher up on the torso section may be provided to gather in the fullnessat :the wearers waist.

The garment as illustrated in FIGURE 5 includes woven fabricreinforcement sections such for example as collar and cuff members, andknee, elbow or foot portions. Portions of the garment may be reinforcedby applying textile portions, which may be of relatively open mesh, tothe web during formation of the garment on the collector so thatthe openmesh textile is embedded in the web layer. Where the open mesh fabric isembedded in the web layer, it becomes an integral part of the web andthe fibers on each surface of the fabric become bonded to the fabric andbonded to each other through the openings in the fabric.

Alternatively, the area adjacent the elbow portion 43 of the shirt '44may be provided with a woven textile reinforcement. The textile may besecured to the garment by means of a suitable adhesive, or, where thegarment includes thermoplastic fibers, the textile may be secured to thegarment by a hot pressing operation whereby the thermoplastic fibersbecome tacky and upon cooling bind the textile to the fibrous web. Forbetter grades of garments, the textile reinforcement may be sewn to thegarment.

The cuff portions 45 may be secured to the sleeve in the same manner.Alternatively, the cuff and collar portions may be formed of a looselywoven or woven mesh section 46 and a closely woven portion 47. The openmesh portion 46 may be embedded in the fibrous web as shown in FIGURE 6and bonded to the fibrous web by the use of an adhesive or by the use ofadhesive fibers in the non-woven garment. Application of heat andpressure activates the adhesive material or adhesive fibers and joinsthe cuff portion to the garment to form a unitary assembly. A pocket 48may be secured to the garment by adhesively mounting the pocket on thegarment along the sides and bottom of the pocket section. The pocketsection may be formed of a woven fabric if desired. The upper marginalportion of the ample, after the thickness of the collected fibrous webis about one-half that of the desired thickness, the introduction of thefibers into the chamber may be arrested and the reinforcing woven fabricapplied at the desired areas. The fibers are then introduced into thechamber and collected over the reinforcing fabric portions until thedesired thickness of fiber layer has been collected. After removal ofthe garment from the mold, it may be subjected to a suitable heating andpressing operation to bind the fibers to the reinforcing fabric. 'Inthis embodiment of the garments of this invention, the garment isprovided with reinforcements at the ends of the sleeves and at the neckportion which are most likely to obtain strains which might tear thegarment. Simultaneously, the appearance is enhanced by the tailoredcuffs and collar.

In FIGURE 7, there is illustrated an undergarment, such as drawers,panties or the like. The marginal portions 51 of the leg members 52 ofthe drawers 50 are preferably folded back upon themselves to form a hemand a cord or layer 53 is positioned under the fold or within the hem.The marginal portions are then adhesively or thermally bonded to the legmembers. Such structure is well suited to reinforce these leg openingswhich might be subjected to sufficient strains to cause the garment totear. Alternatively, the folded marginal portions may be secured to theleg members and the openings reinforced by sewing. The upper end of thedrawers should be of sutficient size to pass the wearers hips. The uppermarginal portion 54 is folded downwardly upon the torso portion of thegarment and a drawstring 55 is positioned under the fold before themarginal portion is adhesively secured to the torso portion. The seatsection of the garment and where the garment is formed with leg portionswhich extend to the wearers ankles, the knee portion, or the entiregarment may be surfaced with or reinforced with a woven fabric or with acontinuous film of plastic material, such as a vinylite resin sheet.

In FIGURE 8, there is illustrated a further form of garment which may beformed in accordance with the present invention, namely, a childssleeping garment.

The garment is formed with a torso portion 56 and integral legappendages 57 and arm appendages 58. The neck portion is preferablyprovided with a drawstring 59 of the same type as describedhereinbefore. If desired, the ends of the arm appendages may be cutadjacent the ends as shown by the dotted lines 60. Portions of thegarment may be reinforced with woven fabric or a continuous film ofplastic material as described hereinabove.

While preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed, thedescription is intended to be illustrative and it is to be understoodthat changes and variations may be made without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims,

I claim:

1. A seamless garment comprising a tubular body portion having at leastone open end and one terminal portion and integral tubular appendageseach having a terminal portion, the tubular body portion and tubularappendages being formed of a unitary mat of fibers in randomdistribution and woven fabric sections secured to at least some of theterminal portions of the garment, a portion of each woven fabric sectionbeing embedded in the unitary mat of fibers adjacent the terminalportions and extending beyond the terminal portions of the unitary matof fibers, the embedded sections of the woven fabric being bonded to thefibers in the unitary mat.

2. A seamless garment comprising a tubular torso receiving portionhaving openings at both ends, a neck portion at one of said ends and apair of integral tubular arm receiving portions projecting from thetubular torso receiving portion and extending in a generally downwarddirection along opposite sides of the torso receiving portion from aposition adjacent the neck portion, the

axes of the arm receiving portions forming acute angles with the axis ofthe torso receiving position, the tubular torso receiving portion andthe tubular arm receiving portions being formed of a unitary mat offibers in random distribution, the unitary mat comprising from about toabout by weight of non-textile making fibers having a length less thanabout one-half inch and the balance of the fibers being fibers havinglengths of at least one-half inch, at least one of the types of fibersbeing formed of a potentially adhesive material and at least some of thefibers of the mat being bonded together.

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